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Causes of Eating Disorders

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Topic # 1: Causes of Eating Disorders

Throughout North America, many continue to suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Individuals with eating disorders can experience changes in their physical and mental health that may also lead to death. Women are in fact more prone to eating disorders over men. According to the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), 10.7 out of every 100 000 women suffer from an eating disorder, where as 0.7 per 100 000 males suffer from an eating disorder (Gucciardi et al, 2003). In addition, Statistics Canada notes that 90% or more of all cases pertaining to the diagnosis of an eating disorder are for women (Statistics Canada, n.d.). Furthermore, the Canadian Institution of Health Information states that in the year 2000 , 11.54% of women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and 15.36% of women diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, reported suffering from depression. Moreover, these percentages equate to more than double of the 5.7% of women from the general population who have reported suffering from depression (Gucciardi et al, 2003). This paper will explore and address eating disorders through past research papers and as well to propose a possible experiment that may be used to further uncover the underlying causes for eating disorders.
In the article “Observations on Human Behaviour in Experimental Semistarvation and Rehabilitation” by Joseph C. Franklin, Burtrum C. Schiele, Josef Brozek, and Ancel Keys, explains and explores the affects of low calorie diets. Furthermore, Franklin et. al explains how soldiers were affected by starvation, throughout the World War as the experiment altered the diet of thirty-six young men. The men went from consuming 3,492 calories per day for 6 months to consuming 1,570 calories. The yielded results showed the effects of consuming a low calorie diet,

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